He tells Britain’s Daily Mirror, “Gaga came to me and said she wanted a tattoo that looked like something done in a prison – edgy, grey, I suppose a bit scary.

“She wanted a design that a fan had given her, the word ‘Rio’ where the letter ‘I’ was the Christ.

“She told me she wanted it to look like a prison tattoo, not a nice design, a bit shadowy. ‘Like something done in prison,’ was the term she used.

“She didn’t want it to look really sharp but more like an amateur tattoo. It’s on the back of her neck, just below the hairline – she got her hair especially shaped to show the design. She was laughing with her friend and listening to music all through the inking. She never flinched with the pain.”